Laptop's battery getting wonky

[MoodyBlues]

Oh, those aren't telephone poles, they're power poles! No wonder they shut off the juice for the entire neighborhood! One wrong move and zzzzap!

I keep calling it a telephone pole, even though I obviously know it's a power pole. Oh well, old age, what can I say?

:laugh:

 

[nickdalzell]

sounds more like a George of the Jungle blunder.

 

[MoodyBlues]

soooo glad i live in an area with buried utilities. i got so sick of the pole things being hit by everything and having power go out during Winter when you really don't need it to (while in Summer you can find shade or open a window to deal with the lack of A/C,

Have you ever been to Dallas in the summer?! Trust me on this...105 degrees, 99% humidity, no breeze, no A/C, equals MASSIVE MISERY. I was unfortunate enough to experience that multiple times in the years I lived there, sometimes lasting only a few hours, other times several days. Not fun. My husband and I resorted to sitting on the patio dousing ourselves with the hose--in the middle of the night, it was so BLEEPING hot and humid.

 

[nickdalzell]

You just reminded me of Owensboro, KY last summer. 99% humidity, drought, and 110 degrees. it's one reason i got a window unit in my camper, as the roof unit wouldn't work good enough. it's also a reason i had to replace that cheap worn out DC/AC power panel that came with my trailer home because it had to choose the hottest day to literally explode. but i have not had a power outage with buried utilities. during our ice storm, all the lines and much of the grid was gone. ice had done its job on the overhead lines, transformers went off like fireworks, for two nights, it felt like i was in a war. you could view the horizon at night, hear booms, explosions, trees cracking, and see the flashing at a distance. the power was out for a month. i had to go to mom's at the time as my home was located on a spot where the lines were overhead. now i have it sitting where they're all buried. haven't a problem since. this last winter, they told me the same park i was at then had two more long-term outages again, not due to a storm, but wind. it again played its game with overhead lines.


now heat i can deal with. but massive long-term cold with no heater, no thanks.

 

[saptech]

Have you ever been to Dallas in the summer?! Trust me on this...105 degrees, 99% humidity, no breeze, no A/C, equals MASSIVE MISERY. I was unfortunate enough to experience that multiple times in the years I lived there, sometimes lasting only a few hours, other times several days. Not fun. My husband and I resorted to sitting on the patio dousing ourselves with the hose--in the middle of the night, it was so BLEEPING hot and humid.

Sounds like St. Louis. It's 105 degrees during the day and 100 degrees during the night with humidity hovering around 99% the whole time!

 

[MoodyBlues]

You just reminded me of Owensboro, KY last summer. 99% humidity, drought, and 110 degrees. it's one reason i got a window unit in my camper, as the roof unit wouldn't work good enough. it's also a reason i had to replace that cheap worn out DC/AC power panel that came with my trailer home because it had to choose the hottest day to literally explode.

Oh, dear...reminds me of the time [in Dallas] when our central air unit decided to die. It didn't explode...it just slowly kept grinding and trying to work. Of course, this was right smack in the middle of a 100+ degree streak, day after day, humidity 95+%, no relief, and having to wait to get the new unit installed because everybody was so busy with other customers. Truly miserable.

but i have not had a power outage with buried utilities. during our ice storm, all the lines and much of the grid was gone. ice had done its job on the overhead lines, transformers went off like fireworks, for two nights, it felt like i was in a war. you could view the horizon at night, hear booms, explosions, trees cracking, and see the flashing at a distance. the power was out for a month.

Brings back fond memories of living in Dallas. Not! Once, during a thunderstorm [or tornado...the memory has blurred], we heard transformers blowing all over the neighborhood. THAT time, we were without power for several days. Sucked.

i had to go to mom's at the time as my home was located on a spot where the lines were overhead. now i have it sitting where they're all buried. haven't a problem since. this last winter, they told me the same park i was at then had two more long-term outages again, not due to a storm, but wind. it again played its game with overhead lines.

What a relief it must be for you to be free of that now.

now heat i can deal with. but massive long-term cold with no heater, no thanks.

Well, now that I'm back home in SoCal, long-term ACTUAL cold isn't much of a threat. But heat? OMFG. I don't do well in heat at all, and even though the humidity here is laughable--I mean the way the natives REACT to 15% humidity by moaning and groaning about HOW HUMID it is!--if I had to pick, I'd rather be without power in the winter, not summer. I'm lost without air conditioning!

 

[nickdalzell]

my A/C didn't explode, there were just so many brownouts that combined with the increased load on my place with two A/Cs going, my TV, tons of fans, etc the circuit breaker (located under the stove in the kitchen) blew. i was napping to help stay still as it was still hot inside and i heard this loud BLAM! and everything went dead, and my breaker panel was sizzling and smoke rolling out. panicking i ran outside and pulled the plug and diagnosed the problem. it had cooked all the wiring, and although my TV, tech was ok, the lights were dead. the fixtures blew, the switches no longer had continuity, all the relays and fuses blown in the DC portion. so it was a trip to Lowe's and Home Depot in a car with no A/C to buy everything needed to literally rewire my home for 110V A/C all around, and that meant replacing all the lights, switches, and increasing the gauge of wire for the A/C roof unit to keep it from blowing the breaker under heavy load. it was not a fun night. it was so late by the time i started that i was going by a flashlight and sweat. then i had power, but only my living room and kitchen. but i had A/C. my bedroom and bath were dead though. no lights, no outlets. so i showered in the dimness of a hung oil lamp for a few days before i decided to finish. i think i finally completed repairs by Winter.

 

[MoodyBlues]

my A/C didn't explode, there were just so many brownouts that combined with the increased load on my place with two A/Cs going, my TV, tons of fans, etc the circuit breaker (located under the stove in the kitchen) blew. i was napping to help stay still as it was still hot inside and i heard this loud BLAM! and everything went dead, and my breaker panel was sizzling and smoke rolling out. panicking i ran outside and pulled the plug and diagnosed the problem. it had cooked all the wiring, and although my TV, tech was ok, the lights were dead. the fixtures blew, the switches no longer had continuity, all the relays and fuses blown in the DC portion. so it was a trip to Lowe's and Home Depot in a car with no A/C to buy everything needed to literally rewire my home for 110V A/C all around, and that meant replacing all the lights, switches, and increasing the gauge of wire for the A/C roof unit to keep it from blowing the breaker under heavy load. it was not a fun night. it was so late by the time i started that i was going by a flashlight and sweat. then i had power, but only my living room and kitchen. but i had A/C. my bedroom and bath were dead though. no lights, no outlets. so i showered in the dimness of a hung oil lamp for a few days before i decided to finish. i think i finally completed repairs by Winter.

Oh my goodness! Does not sound like one bit of fun, especially with smoke and sizzling. I'm glad, and I'll bet you were, too, that it didn't start a fire. Things could've turned out a lot worse.

I don't know anything about electricity and wouldn't know where to begin--nor would I want to--as far as fixing anything myself. All I know is that some things are better left to those who actually know what they're doing--and electricity is one thing I defer to others on. You're lucky that you know what you're doing and can fix stuff like that yourself.

 

[Speed Daemon]

Well, now that I'm back home in SoCal, long-term ACTUAL cold isn't much of a threat. But heat? OMFG. I don't do well in heat at all, and even though the humidity here is laughable--I mean the way the natives REACT to 15% humidity by moaning and groaning about HOW HUMID it is!--if I had to pick, I'd rather be without power in the winter, not summer. I'm lost without air conditioning!

Same here! It got slightly warm here, and the inside temps got into the upper 70s. UGH! Because it was still pretty cold outside, the A/C wouldn't switch on. I finally had to open a window and let in all the toxic (at least to me) pollen 'n' stuff, just so I could get some sleep.

When I woke up it was freezing inside, but that's what blankets are for. That's the nice thing about blankets--they work just fine when the power is out. If it gets too cold, just get the whole family (critters too) together.

If the A/C goes out, that's it...

 

[nickdalzell]

electricity isn't hard, just think of it like this: black wire is like your positive battery cable, and white is like negative. so long as black is connected to black and white connected to white (and not reversed) and is nice and tight you can wire a house, or in my case, a travel trailer used as a house. i am satisfied, instead of cheesy looking plastic RV fixtures with dim DC bulbs, i now have some nice household decor fixtures, even ceiling fans, and my bathroom has a much nicer and far more effective exhaust fan/light combo. probably the hardest part aside expense was figuring out in the nest of assorted wiring what goes to what. a digital multimeter and continuity tester is a nice tool

Speed, if i have learned one thing by being a full-timer who's place usually stays in one spot with the wheels removed, it's NEVER open a window in spring. i got about five wasps (why only wasps and not flies and mosquitoes i wonder?) hanging around on my ceiling right now in the living room. so long as it remains cool and mild those cold-blooded flying demons stay nice and docile. first warm spell though watch out! bug screens....they...do...nothing!